India To Soon Get A Temple Dedicated To Mahatma Gandhi's Killer

Nathuram Godse, left, one of nine co-defendants in the Mohandas Gandhi assassination conspiracy case, and defense counsellor L.B. Bhopatkar confer May 27, 1948, at the start of the hearing. (AP Photo)

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A far right Hindu outfit has said it would build a temple to Nathuram Godse, the man who shot and killed Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948 in New Delhi. The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha said it planned to begin work on the temple in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh on the same day that Gandhi died, the Times of India reported.

The TOI report quoted Hindu Mahasabha spokesman Sharad Gupta as saying that the outfit has bought land in the Siddhauli's Para village for the construction of the temple. Gupta also said Godse's urn would be brought from Pune to Sitapur and established at the temple.

The land the outfit has demarcated for Godse's temple is incidentally the one earmarked for a Bharat Mata temple, a monument to the motherland. "Since the BJP is not showing much interest in the Hindu agenda like the Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha has decided to come up with a temple on Godse," Gupta told the TOI.

On December 21, all India president of ABHM, Chander Prakash Kaushik, told Firstpost that he has written to Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh to install statues of Godse all across the country. Kaushik said Godse was "a patriot, freedom fighter, an editor, and not a criminal".

Godse was a nationalist leader from Pune and a member of the right wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who shot at Gandhi at close range. He stood trial for over a year and was sentenced to death.